Movie Reviews (1851-1900)

Intriguing piece of documentary that tell about a neglected and hidden part of Lebanese history: their rocket programme that could have turned them into a space travelling and modern society if not events and neighboring countries had stopped them. It is a hopeful documentary even if it don't touch so much on events that may be the real reason for this rocket program to have been scrapped.

The last in the autobiographical trilogy was the first I saw, which doesn't matter that much as it is a powerful, almost-silent poetic drama about a boy and his short, but powerful relationship with his father. Images and beauty is always stronger than words and the young boy manage to do this best of everyone. Makes me wanna see the other two films in the trilogy too.

A remake of Italian "Big Deal on Madonna Street" but without the charm and perfect direction of the original. The best moments in the film is direct copied since the big masses has never seen a old black and white foreign language film in the U.S. Not worth the time and investment when there is a better film out there even if the actors seem to have joy recreating their favorite film.

If there ever should be a movie about a man taking justice in his own hands killing off dirty shitbags than it should be about the evil trafficking industry. It has some obvious twists on the way, but the tension doesn't really let go as the father tries to find his daughter before her virginity is taken by pervert sickos. For some the death penalty should be delivered at once.

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was hot stuff so why not hire two annoying imitators and make a grade Z-horror comedy and involve out-of-job Bela Lugosi to embarrass himself even further. It is without a doubt about the worst movie I have seen Bela do - his Ed Wood films was at least entertainingly bad. This is only boring, annoying and has a cop-out ending. The real ape does the best acting in this film.

There is a lot to cherish here, especially the idea of having a movie about psychologists doing human experiments on their patients and having long discussions about their ideas. The acting is mostly pretty good (if we take away Knightley's Mr. Hyde moments at the beginning), but sadly we never really come under the skin of the characters and there is too little of Cronenberg's perverted sex to add spice to the film.

With a dream landscape of S&M and murder, "Succubus" was one of Jesus Franco's earliest entries in his life-long sex fantasy obsession of crazed nymphomaniac undressed women with knives that happen to love bondage. The story is fragmented so a narration tries to hide the big plot holes which either will make you scratch your head or make you sleep or you can just don't care and live the dream. A rather schizophrenic production helped by gorgeous cinematography.

It recreates the fast pace of the book that was not a masterpiece anyhow but something one read in crowded places so one don't need to concentrate that much. The movie has to be approached the same way. The visual imagery of "hell on Earth" at the beginning is the most memorable thing in it as the tension fizzles out midway through with too much double crossings but it is all faults from the original book so fans should not be that disappointed.

A feel-good sport movie with both a heart and a message that towers over most of the films in it's genre. Triggered by a likable leading actress the movie never really loses it's focus even if it has a predictable ending and loses much steam when the final competition begin. I still found it hard to hate as it give hope even to those of us in soceity that has the worst start in life.

Michael Gambon pushes the boundaries on how far it is possible to be offended and disgusted by a character on film in this unique dark comedic, erotic, horror satire that also feels like a modern staged Shakespearean play. The set design, music and acting levitate the film to a higher grade and it is fascinating to follow the supporting characters when other characters talk too as there is a lot happening here.

Glenn Close look very much like a colorful cartoon villain and the pair duo of Joan Allen and Jeff Daniels is cute, but the "Home Alone" routine and tired slapstick made me fall to sleep. The kid wanted to act a dog afterwards though so I guess it is effective enough if you see it in a very young age. I'll try to see the animated original version instead and see if that sticks better. At least the dogs didn't talk.

A movie that throws so much slapstick and surprising twists that it is hard not to be entertained by it even when it is at it's dumbest. Laughable depressing daydreams, overuse of insects and dangerous animals and a delicious Vimala Pons in supertight shorts make it all worth watching.

Richard Pryor really should have done more dramatic roles during his lifetime as this film show how fantastic he could be playing emotional real-life working class characters. Yaphet Kotto and Harvey Keitel also deliver solid stuff in this excellent heist-gone-wrong movie that end up being really tense at the end as the robbers so discover that no one screws the union nor the system. Cool movie with substance.

As a representation of the old classic fairytales with a simple story, predictable characters and evil mythical characters this movie delivers a jolly good time - if only one is between five and twelve. The cast try their best with a film that has hardly any surprises. It do have some iconic national romantic imagery though and a lot of beautiful shots of our nature.

Sexy as hell - as you get two of the loveliest actresses from early 1980s being at their most gorgeous. The movie has a great New Orleans atmosphere too and the "big cats" are phenomenal to watch. The twisted incest angle is tense but it is hard to blame Kinski for not wanting to mate with crazed Malcolm McDowell even if John Heard turns out to be even more depraved and obsessed by her. The gore is less interesting really than the erotic nature of the film. Big plus for David Bowie title song at the end too.

It never manage to have the same charm as the first LEGO movie even if there are some great small moments in the film where they make homage or talk about older cinematic Batman moments or show Batman relaxing at home - a few short montages that are hilarious and all so few. Instead this is a movie where they cram in as many villains, DC Comic characters and set-pieces in what become a complete overkill on the senses making my brain shut down.

Watch it for lovely Milla and the always watchable Iain Glen who gets to expand on his already killed-off character in a fun way, but everything else about the film is an overkill in editing, action and noisy effects. There is probably some cool stuff here, but nothing sticks in all the mess that is thrown around on the screen. It could and should be the final chapter if one only skips the last 10 seconds of the film too.

Somewhere here is a good film noir set to break out. This one has two masculine fetales instead of a female one but the heroine is ruined by bland narration and a miscast role. Maybe IT had worked with the heroine cast as the murder victim and vice versa? Bacon and Firth are excellent though and the sex has it’s power which the main whodunit hadn’t.

Probably the best nudist colony / Free sex community movie that we will ever get. Beautifully filmed, relaxingly acted and believable. Ends up in a very dark place that comes from nowhere but feels right at home too in our world where we do not accept our own bodies and other people that have a different lifestyle.

Did Stanley Donen take a fake name and made a musical in France with Gene Kelly? After seeing this film you are excused in believing so as this is as close to a Hollywood golden age musical that we are going to get in French. Charming to the toetips.

A fairy tale of the type that Disney would have loved to tell had it not involved animal skinning and a hint of incest. Lovely decor, costumes and set design add to the flavor and the timelessness of it all before it ends the spell with a helicopter landing. Eccentric fantasy musical of the unique kind.

Really looks and feel like a document over three Iranian guys having their last boy-trip together as this feels more like a documentary than a fiction movie. Hard to dislike even when the film is still, quiet and nothing really happens as it feels so true to life.

Lies and videotape but no sex - only religion and a lot of scared paranoid people who are afraid to offend anyone who make fun of their leaders and their own religion. It is a frustrating film to watch as the director is too self-centered to actually manage to show us how why he has to be so rude to other cultures to prove a point about censorship when the true nature of why this censorship exists never is touched upon. Has potential but nothing more.

There are numerous movies about crippled husbands who beg their wives to go on to explore their own sexuality with other men, but few films had managed to do it as realistic and Catholic religious as Lars von Trier. A film with all his fingerprints on it: the documentaric no-music style, frank sexscenes, the numerous chapters telling mini-stories and fabulous attention to acting. A hard but rewarding watch.

It may be an unfinished film, but the screen tests and scenes shot is so exceptional that it is hard to not love it as Romy Schneider looks gorgeous in every shot. The re-enactment with new actors for other scenes actually only enhances the experience and the only sad thing is that they should only have played every scene in it's entirety and then had the real-life drama story at the start. A must for any cinephile.

Very dark bleak and unexpected humor help this short story that has a very unsurprising story as it is all laid out to the audience in the first hospital scene. Brendan Gleeson is always fantastic in this kind-of role though but the Kid is too obnoxious and annoying that I could care for him at all.

While the dialogue may have a lot to be desired and the acting is stiff and stereotypical, this film never bores as it changes location faster than you get to blink your eyes. Hard not to love this when the gorgeous Fay Wray is present in the film as the "price after the manhunt". While the dialogue may have a lot to be desired and the acting is stiff and stereotypical, this film never bores as it changes location faster than you get to blink your eyes. Hard not to love this when the gorgeous Fay Wray is present in the film as the "price after the manhunt" - and it is fun to see the same jungle sets that would be reused for "King Kong" the following year.

Japanese attempt at "Eyes Wide Shut" really, but with sexscenes that are so passionless and theatrical it is hard to care. The leading character is also an idiot of a character that clearly can get every woman he wants except his wife who he harasses throughout the film - and where the hell is Emmanuelle in this film as there is no one called that in the entire film.

There is a lot of sport movies about being a team but usually they are all about winning in the last second, round or what-ever, but this one actually tells more about the spirit of sport that most films in the genre as this team is mostly interested in surviving the bob-slide down and show the winter nations that even a country with no snow can participate. The ending is moving and John Candy is good here.

A film that slowly reveal how two friends live in Communist and Catholic Poland. One embrace it and live content with his wife out in the country while the other long for something more and try to tempt with the city and all that it can offer. This could easily have turned into a depressing film it instead turns out to be a positive and uplifting one about loving one's own place in the universe like the crystal.

Polish drama about coming home to all the problems and conflicts that stay the same there. It feels and looks like a "play of the week" and stays pretty slow at first until the family's monarch arrives and the acting and dialogue turns more interesting. Still it is a movie that hits-and-misses and feels kind-of unfocused at times.

The search for enlightenment and meaning of life has seldom been done more powerful or more realistic than in this beautiful shot and fast edited movie that is spliced with documentaric scenes and moments of philosophy on both medicine, science and religion. Absorbing and gripping. Among the best dramas seen and the answer ends up being in the eye of the beholder. A major step in the right direction for Zanussi after two very TV-stale productions as this is cinematic to the core.

Satire drama that tell us the universal story that all rules are made by the laziest and most stupid leader and any academic or student trying to question it is either sent off in jail or ridiculed so the best way is to be a cynic who knows the truth but decide not to do anything about it in order to survive as "you turn a blind eye to people's true nature".

Well at least all the Greek stereotypes, culture fun and wacko relatives are all inspired by the female screenwriter from Greece who wrote the story so at least we can enjoy the "good-natured intention" of the romantic movie, but it is also harmless and very predictable with not a single surprise in it. Like the brother/sister relationship in the film though and the romance itself is cute.

Sadly this is one overlong, boring story about Arthur before he became king and gets to learn stuff by Merlin about how to rule so he gets transformed into various animals. Only a horny squirrel and a hungry wolf sprites up the humor as this has to be one of Disney's most disappointing animated movie. Two times I have slept through portions of it.

It may have some crude animation sometimes, but this is a pretty intense rescue story for the kids with a insane crazed redhead that shoots holes in the wall while holding a girl kidnapped with her two crocodiles. It is pretty brutal stuff when one start to think about it, but luckily a supercute mouse and her handyman is out to save the day. A fast hour of film that runs fast with the kids.

Best modern movie representation of the classic old Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge stories. While it could have been a 3-parter on the just as good animated TV-series it also stands perfectly on it's own legs and is a fun adventure that is lovely handdrawn and has our Duckburg characters looking beautiful before CGI and lazy productions on Disney Channel ruined the characters totally.

Is this both a requiem to the director and the world itself or is it also a hopeful testament to humans that survive even in the most tragic and worst parts of our world? Who knows, but the images shot in this film are hypnotic and it is hard not to be absorbed by what we get to see even if I have the feeling that the director had planned to shot more film in Europe if he had returned.

This ain't art and it isn't a war movie either and has some of the most boring action scenes in a B-movie low-budget action movie I have seen even if there is some fun in "spotting the celeb" involved, but that is only for the first few scenes. Afterwards this is perfect film to nod off to.

A straight-forward story about young love and a crazed mother out to stop them get the David Lynch treatment of wacko, eccentric, fowl-talking sickos, rock'n'roll music, outbursts of off-putting violence and a lot of fire and car crashes. Laura Dern has never been more lovely and Willem Dafoe has the ugliest set of teeth seen on film. A nightmarish fairytale that luckily has a happy ending so that we can survive the ordeal.

A near perfect movie at least visually and in the acting department as it is hard not to be absorbed by the spectacle and setting of a theater trying to survive in occupied WW2 France. Not so sure if the story manages to really fullfill all it could accomplish with it's ending as it has a marvellous build-up, but what we get is still gripping and memorable.

Beckinsale shows that she probably could do this film another twenty years from now and still look bloody fantastic in both leather and fangs making her the truly one sole constant good thing with this series. The rest is another shoot-em-up fest that can easily go on the telly in the background while I update my "movie reviews" list. Charles Dance is cool though. This film could work as an ending at least had it not been for the last two minutes.

The young women's nude skin is the main reason for this film being watchable to be honest as Phoebe Cates and Betsy Russell alone could give any man heart attack, but when together this rating has to get bumped up to two stars as the rest of the film lacks any good comedic timing and the male actors are charmless. But the pause button has never been more used than in this film as a sexstarved teenager that is sure.

I have no problem seeing this as a perfect art project in a museum or as an experiment by the director but the problem is that after few minutes this picture show got so tedious that I never managed to care much about the intention and message of the film - which is sad as I really wanted to like this film. Maybe I just was not in the mood this time.

A day in life (sort of) portrait of street artists in Colombia. Shows that people with no money also can have artistic visions but the movie also wanders off with it’s focus on a opera singing father. Intriguing but with unfullfilled potential too.

An intriguing premise falls completely apart from the moment they decided to turn this film into a horror movie when it would have been better as a drama. The director has no competence or understanding on how to end the film either and it gets dumber and dumber for each minute. All the actors run around like headless chicken and deNiro seem totally distanced. Rebecca Romijn is most believable as worried mom.

So disturbing that I'm not even sure I can put it in the comedy genre as this is closer to a horror movie as there is something scary seeing two dark-skinned dudes changed into two white porcelain dolls playing them as two upperclass rich women ( crazed in their own appearance) who has had facelift surgery gone wrong. Aside from this fact this film is among the most embarassing films I have seen.

A surprisingly funny anti-Christmas movie that show that putting family members, friends, lovers and ex-husbands in the same house is the worst idea in the world and worse the most horrible disaster movie. A lot of charm, fun dialogue and comedic situations make this still among the more realistic Christmas movies I have seen as there is not much of the holiday spirit in this one.

Feels like a nostalgic trip down memory lane to a time when young people talked, had collective parties and was very awkward with their feelings. Could be in a 1990s timecapsule. A very cute film. Even better is the ensemble that really look and act as teenagers. In a Hollywood film they had been acted by Adults in their mid 30s. Close to perfect college film that luckily is without any teenage angst.